ATLANTA—Of the few ingredients missing from the Michigan State Spartans, perhaps the most glaring is the lack of a vocal leader. It seems likely that Keith Appling won’t ever fill that role, not with a voice so gentle he speaks like a priest in his confessional.

Coach Tom Izzo hopes center Derrick Nix might embrace that duty, and he took an interesting step in that direction when he summed up Appling’s stunning performance in the final minutes of MSU’s 67-64 victory over Kansas in the first game of the Champions Classic doubleheader Tuesday night at the Georgia Dome.

“He was real poised,” Nix said. “He didn’t make any dumb decisions.”

Those words will leave an impression, right?

Perhaps not like Appling’s dazzling final sequence, when he showed the skill and cunning of a rapidly developing playmaker, which was kind of a surprise given that only a few days earlier he had looked completely lost at the point.

Unlike in Friday’s opening loss to Connecticut, when MSU had a chance to come back on the Huskies despite dreadful play during the first half, Appling took complete command of the closing stages against Kansas.

The Spartans rallied from a five-point deficit with five minutes remaining to hold a one-point lead inside the final two minutes. Izzo called for Nix to set a ball screen for Appling. KU point guard Elijah Johnson tried to go under the screen—Jayhawks coach Bill Self blamed himself for that maneuver—and wound up trapped behind teammate Jeff Withey. As they untangled themselves, Appling stepped back into a 3-pointer that put Michigan State ahead, 65-61. He finished with 19 points and three assists and did not miss any of his three long-distance shots.

“He was not a very shooter last year, as we all know,” Izzo said.

Appling shot 25 percent from 3-point range last season, but he’s 5-of-8 after two games in 2012-13.

“And he did it the old-fashioned way,” Izzo said. “He locked himself into the gym.”

Appling topped that basket with under 15 seconds left, when MSU had a one-point lead but was running out of time against the shot-clock. Appling signaled for a ball screen from Nix, and KU’s hedge left 7-footer Withey trapped against Appling. The memory of Appling’s recent 3-pointer impacted each player’s execution.

“I knew he was going to close out harder on me,” Appling said, “so I figured I’d be able to get by him.”

“He’s quick—really quick,” Withey said. “I was just a little late getting back there to block it. I’m usually pretty good at getting back there.”

Self blamed the breakdown of the KU defense less on Withey than on the failure of defenders behind him to rotate and cut off the drive. Self used the adjective “soft” to describe the defense, which to him is a four-letter word.

For Michigan State, though, it was about a player perhaps beginning to master his position. Appling had been a scorer his entire career but last year was moved to point guard to fill the Spartans’ vacancy and also to enhance his opportunity—at 6-1—to pursue a professional career.

Appling was good enough to help secure a Big Ten regular-season title and a Big Ten Tournament championship, but he was not good enough when Louisville began full-court pressing the Spartans in last year’s Sweet 16. Games like this will push that one deeper into the background.

Izzo said he wanted to run the ball screens to get Appling operating more north-south and less east-west. As for his evaluation of how Appling executed in those sets, Izzo knew exactly why he’d done so well.